


This Is Not A Love Story

by 3ls_fictions



Category: Original Work
Genre: Actors, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Films, Friendship/Love, Future, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, Love, Love Confessions, Love/Hate, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Moving On, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Pain, Romance, True Love, University, Unrequited Love, based on some truth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:28:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28300152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3ls_fictions/pseuds/3ls_fictions
Summary: This is not a love story.  This is not a story of true love.  This is not a story where boy meets girl or girl meets boy.  Rather, this is a story set roughly four years after the fact.  After the end, after the tears, after moving on.I repeat, this is not a love story.  This is a story of chance, a story of pain and a story of regrets.
Kudos: 1





	This Is Not A Love Story

This is not a love story. This is not a story of true love. This is not a story where boy meets girl or girl meets boy. Rather, this is a story set roughly four years after the fact. After the end, after the tears, after moving on. 

I repeat, this is not a love story. This is a story of chance, a story of pain and a story of regrets.

What would it feel like to hold his hand, to own his heart, to know his soul? How would you know if he was right for you, if he truly cared, if he was there for you? When would you know if the time was right, if the feelings were real, if you loved him as much as he loved you? Honestly, you wouldn’t. You’ve just got to trust that the time's right and you know each other well enough to believe the words you say and the way you feel.

I trusted myself and the way I felt but I’d never had that much luck with guys… or girls for that matter. I had my first kiss with a boy, in a tent on my bed, when I was nine years old. I remember it was a pink pop-up tent, with pale yellow and blue flowers decorating the sides, there was a pop up tunnel connected to the door and led to another pink pop-up tent on the floor. 

I also remember the kiss.

_ “It’s only a real kiss if it’s for longer than three seconds.” _

_ “Okay.” _ _  
_ _ “Are you ready…? Three… two… one…” _

The kiss itself was awkward and weird and it did nothing for me but, in honesty, I can’t complain as I have nothing to compare it to. That’s right, eight years later and I still have yet to kiss another man. I kissed a girl once but that wasn’t much different. It was still and awkward and all around uncomfortable. 

In my whole twenty-two years of existence I’ve dated, or been with, a grand total of four people. The boy with whom I shared my first kiss when I was nine, which in all honesty I don’t actually count as a real relationship even though it lasted longer than any relationship I’d ever been in before. The first relationship that I counted as real was when I was twelve. I met a boy in the school drama club. He played Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream, I played Titania. He was sweet and kind and, let me tell you, whoever told you chivalry was dead had never met him. After our last performance we were walking back to class and as we got closer to his class I knew if I was going to ask, it had to be then.

_ “Hey, what would you say if I asked you to go out with me?” _ _  
_ _ “I… well, I’d say, yes.” _

We smiled and then it was his turn to ask a question.

_ “Can I meet you here after school, walk home together?” _ _  
_ _ “Sure.” _

We lasted a while. Well, maybe four to five weeks. Truth is I got cold feet and ended it when he brought up kissing. 

My next relationship was with a girl. We played spin the bottle and kissed a few times and then ended up together. I was thirteen years old and I convinced myself she was the one. Weirdly enough, however, I can’t remember how it ended. I feel as though I must have blocked it out for some reason but I just can’t think of why.

Finally, we come to the boy whom this story greatly features. Relationship number four, the most recent of my exes. We met online and hit it off from day one but due to events that I could never imagine. It ended over three months later, just five days before Christmas day. We just had problems that couldn’t be solved. I always thought our biggest problems would be around three thousand miles and a six to seven hour time gap, depending on whether he was at home or in university, but it turned out that after everything our problem was his ex girlfriend. Well, it’s not her fault, but rather our problem was that he got back with her a month into our relationship and never told me.

_ “Hi, I’m sorry to bother you but do you know Noah Jenkins?” _ __  
_ “Yeah… he’s my boyfriend. Who are you?” _ _  
_ __ “I...um… I’m his girlfriend.”

Ultimately, he ended it with me whilst going on about how he’d already hurt her enough but he never addressed how much he hurt me when he chose her. I found out all of this while making gingerbread men and I never did decorate them as it hurt too much to even look at them. After that day he blocked me on everything and made his Instagram private, even though it was a photography account and it could ruin his career. It hurt and I cried, a lot, and, although I was never the biggest fan of Christmas, that year I really couldn’t care any less about it. To me it was just another day.

This all went down in December of 2020 but this isn't the story. Not yet anyway. The real story doesn’t begin until April of 2024, just one week after my 21st birthday.

Before we get into the real story, however, there are some basic things you need to know. Think of it like a timeline of events that took place between December 2020 and April 2024. I won’t bore you with a day to day log, I’ll just pull out the key dates and events.

**February 23rd 2021** \- the day I passed my practical exam for driving and bought my first car. It was a black Ford Fiesta and I loved it with all of me. I loved it even more knowing I’d paid for it myself and that my parents hadn’t bought it for me.

**April 8th 2021** \- My eighteenth birthday. I went to spoons with my two step brothers and my brother and we had a meal and had a few drinks. My first legal drinks. The next day I also bought cider from Morrisons and hung out with my friends, who were underage, at my house.

**December 25th 2021** \- Another Christmas. It wasn’t as bad as Christmas 2020 but I still didn’t enjoy it all that much.

**January 20th 2022** \- I submitted my application to a study abroad programme and listed my locations of choice.

**May 14th 2022** \- Graduated sixth form with two A*s and an A. Just one day later I found out I got accepted into a study abroad programme.

**July 1st 2022** \- I found out that the school the programme had chosen for me was the University of Colorado Boulder for Film Studies and a side English lit.

**September 3rd 2022** \- I left the UK and I never looked back.

**March 7th 2023** \- I starred in a short film. It was about pain and hurt and high school image. I was really proud of this work and it was later distributed to High Schools across the nation to educate.

**May 1st 2023** \- Nick contacted me. He loved the short film and was so intrigued about the whole process that we got talking. A lot.

**August 28th 2023** \- I went home to the UK. It was just for the summer but I wasn’t returning to the University of Colorado Boulder afterwards as my last school year was a practical year. It was a year where you go out, get involved with projects, pick up experience. 

**September 1st 2023** \- Nick and I arranged to make a short together for my practical year. We facetimed, wrote scripts and planned it out knowing that I’d fly out in the Spring and we would have it filmed by the end of summer.

**April 12th 2024** \- Where our story begins. After I’d stepped off the plane in George Bush Intercontinental Airport, after I’d picked up the keys to my flat and after I’d picked up my car and began driving into my new life.


End file.
